Design and simulation of a power management unit in a solar based electric propulsion system

The aim of this paper is to compare different architectures for a power system that supplies electrical thrusters for future space exploration missions. The main goal of these architectures is the maximization of the power extracted from the solar arrays in all operational situations and this is possible only by using peak power tracking algorithms. This limits the choice of architectures only to those including some form of peak power tracking algorithms. (5 pages)